Wow! Hang on a cotton pickin' minute! I think labelling Tour TDs as some sort of used car salesmen that are deliberately taking you for a ride is extremely unfair! We work bloody hard to try and put on the best damn tournament we can. "Paying through the nose" - personally I think that around £150 per team is CHEAP! Once you've divided that up between at least 10 players, as pretty much all teams have and more often than not have many more - that's £15 each for a whole weekend of entertainment! What else can you do for a whole weekend that costs £15?? Admittedly, A-Tour should pay more etc but as I've said before, that's not our decision to make.
I agree that you get a bit more for your money at some tournaments than you do for others, but it's still a cheap price per team. As for TDs not putting in much effort to run the tournament - you're having a laugh aren't you?! Have you any idea how much preparation you have to do with the venue before hand to ensure you guys want for nothing when you're there? Venue's are like computers, they won't do anything unless they're told to - so you have to give them explicit instructions on absolutely every aspect of the tournament to make sure nothing goes wrong - food, pitches, camping, security, showers, the party, other accommodation etc etc. Then you have to sort out all the other things you players need - St John's, masseuse, bins, trophies, a skip, discs etc etc etc. We have to fork out literally thousands of pounds before the cheques start coming in - when that money could be earning interest in the bank. The real work starts at the tournament when we have to run around for 2 days at your beck and call - cones out in the morning, constant water runs, tracking down teams to get scores, sorting our problems with the venue if the toilets over flow or something, hours of bloody litter picking because you lot can't find a bin for your bloody banana skins, cones back in in the evening - and then it all starts again on Sunday. We work 14 hour days at least to keep the tournament going. I'm sorry if sometimes you can't hear the hooter or that you can't find water right there and then - but these things are difficult to do (despite what you might think). I was very impressed with the water service at Tour 2 and am already wondering how we're going to live up to it! That you should begrudge us earning a few hundred quid for putting in A LOT of hard work, organisation and physical effort smacks of being a tad ungrateful. AND - we do show the UKU our costs and profits. Go on - you put on a Tour next year, charge £50 a team or something, find out how much effort it is and then decide if you want to do it again the next year for that amount of return. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Rebecca Forth Sent: 20 May 2005 10:01 To: britdisc@near.me.uk Subject: [BD] Worrying trend Dear anyone still interested in the debate: I'd just like to throw into the debate: The price of tours. I am really beginning to feel tournament directors are charging far too much and each year they escalate. With 50+ teams attending. The level of profit is ridiculous and over and above for the level of work. In the past there have been two main arguments for increased tournament feees : 1) If you want better pitch/off pitch services then you have to pay for them 2) If you don't like it run a tournament yourself I do not believe we have had any better services. You can see that efforts are being made. But are they really improving services and do they justify the level of TD profit at the expense of ultimate players? We've still had holey dry fields with not enough water, been asked to take scoreboards/set cones out and in some tours the end of game signal hasn't even been clear. The second argument, that you should run one yourself if you don't like the current options, is not the way forwards, because everyone who does choose to enter the tournament business (and it is a business in this country like nowhere else in the world!) charges the same amount as previous TD's and reaps the profits. And those charges are only escalating. If we are forced to pay through the nose for a tournament it would be good if the UKU benefitted so they can implement many of the suggested future initiatives. I also think that the profits of the tours should be published. This way the UKU can take a percentage of those profits. Whilst also maintaining a cap on tournament fees. Many of us dedicate a vast amount of money and time to our sport - it would be nice to also feel like you weren't being taken for a ride everytime you enter a tour. Bex Bliss - The age old argument about price for a tour The pitches were no better, I saw one petrol can filled of water all weekend by our pitches. Should we really be paying £160 for a weekend for these -- Rebecca Forth Colt Foundation Research Fellow Portex Anaesthesia, Intensive Therapy & Respiratory Unit Institute of Child Health 30 Guilford Street London WC1N 1EH __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list BritDisc@near.me.uk http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp This Email is confidential and is for the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the author and you must not disclose or use the contents in any way. The author bears responsibility for any legal action or disputes arising from views or professional advice expressed which do not relate to the business of Faber Maunsell Ltd. __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list BritDisc@near.me.uk http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
